graduate #yogastory – Sara Stolle
a reflection of what is possible by Sara Stolle
My time in the Yoga bubble is over and I am actually allowed to teach! I don’t think that has set in yet. If I look back to the four weeks of my teacher training experience, a congeries of pictures appear in my head. It feels like an overwhelming flashback – full of emotions, both positive and negative. Everything seems so surreal, almost like a dream.
The first week was like dipping into a whole new world. Everything was new, exciting and different. Even though I had to follow my job as a teacher in the first three days of the training, I also had the feeling of being completely consumed by the yoga bubble. You start to think, breathe, live yoga all day long (sometimes even night). It wasn’t a weird feeling at all as there was no time to question your current lifestyle. And this attitude remained till the end of the training. It would be a lie if I said that I didn’t have times where I thought, “what am I doing here? Is everything worth it in the end?”
But as quick as these thoughts came up, they disappeared. Why did they disappear? One of the main reasons were the people, who became your study buddies, your friends, and your family throughout this journey. We created a kind of group dynamic and that was a huge motivation to go on and study more. This bond grew week by week, and in the end, we did not want to leave each other.
The other approach, which was developed stage by stage or week by week, was the amount of knowledge. I did not know that it is possible to learn so much in such a short time (and I’m a history teacher!) This perception relates not only to the study of yoga essentials and postures but for learning as a whole.
The teacher training was not only beneficial for my mind, but also for my body. To see how much Yoga my body can do and wants to do was surprising. I did a lot of yoga challenges in the past years, but the amount of work in the training was a different story. How? Well, for starters, you are totally focused on giving 100%, especially because you want to try the new things. Another factor that pushes your own practice was the group dynamic. If you see these hard working yogis all around you, you want to be part of it. Even when your muscles are sore and you actually can´t move, you also can´t resist. You want to do the posture, and you want to feel the posture.
Another stage of the training, which is maybe not that obvious, is the spiritual growth. The lectures guided you through thoughts, which you have never thought before. There was a new horizon showing up. This kind of extension of your own thinking changes your self-awareness, not only the studies of yoga sutras or the meditations but even more the discussions in the group lead to this awareness.
Coming back to my question, is it worth it? To sum up what only four weeks of the evolation yoga teacher training brought me: awareness about learning, about the potential of your mind and your body, spiritual extension, new friends even a new family. If I look at this, I am willing to say: everybody should do something like a yoga teacher training in life.